Big Lugs Big Solder No Flux To Catch Fire

Academia
Back to the world of electrical solder. Pure lead used around a flooded battery does not decompose nearly as fast as a Pb Sn alloy. This means pure Pb hot dipped copper terminals will not corrode as easily as tin. But a surgical mask MUST be worn if pure lead coated terminals are soldered.
Tin coated wire decomposes slower than pure copper wire. But tinned wire is not a miracle. The tin even when not near battery fumes will turn dark then darker yet and without strong flux or being scraped down to pure copper, cannot be soldered. The tin oxide to lead interface is high resistance to electrical passage so tin plated wire should be thought of as corrosion rheetarding not corrosion proofing. Once a terminal has been bonded to the wire by solder it does not matter what color the surface of the terminal turns to. Current in DC form is carried by the entire strand. I have disassembled many properly hex pressure crimped terminals to find oxidized copper stranding within. Proper adhesive lined heat shrink tubing to seal out battery fumes further slows but does not entirely stop degradation. Surface corrosion on the lug itself burrows beneath the shrink tube seal -eventually- then starts attacking unsoldered lug to wire strand interfacing regardless of how tight the crimp was compressed. The lug to battery post needs to be sealed with anti corrosion spray then diligence is needed to maintain that seal.

I used my gas welding rig to braze on the lugs. I did have a pot of water nearby to douse the insulation.

Thanks! Sorry about that. I was using my SMART phone and something happened to the link on the way to being posted. So I will try and re-post the link using this STUPID laptop. I lost connectivity last night. Actually the problem is with TelCel and it's owner Carlos Slim. Richest man in the world, high phone rates and service equal to rural Yemen.

I CAN NOT SIGN BACK IN TO AMAZON.COM EASILY. There is an Amazon store down here by default sign in.

So I refer AMAZON then insert the search parameters so people can find things on AMAZON.COM. Easy? Huh?


Mastercraft 60/40 Solder - 1 Lb.
by Mastercraft
4.6 out of 5 stars 91 customer reviews
List Price: $19.99
Price: $18.19 Free Shipping for Prime Members

It takes me between eight to twelve minutes to heat a large lug with a 500 watt WEN soldering gun. My D550 260 watt gun is even slower. Six gauge is about the limit I can personally tolerate. Torch 1 min. Versus 10X slower.

For folks who solder very little if at all here is an excerpt from WikiPedia. I damned sure won't type up a dissertation



Tin-lead Sn-Pb solders, also called soft solders, are commercially available with tin concentrations between 5% and 70% by weight. The greater the tin concentration, the greater the solder’s tensile and shear strengths. Alloys commonly used for electrical soldering are 60/40 Sn-Pb, which melts at 188 °C (370 °F), and 63/37 Sn-Pb used principally in electrical/electronic work. 63/37 is a eutectic alloy of these metals, which:

has the lowest melting point (183 °C or 361 °F) of all the tin-lead alloys; and
the melting point is truly a point — not a range.

In plumbing, a higher proportion of lead was used, commonly 50/50. This had the advantage of making the alloy solidify more slowly. With the pipes being physically fitted together before soldering, the solder could be wiped over the joint to ensure watertightness. Although lead water pipes were displaced by copper when the significance of lead poisoning began to be fully appreciated, lead solder was still used until the 1980s because it was thought that the amount of lead that could leach into water from the solder was negligible from a properly soldered joint. The electrochemical couple of copper and lead promotes corrosion of the lead and tin. Tin, however, is protected by insoluble oxide. Since even small amounts of lead have been found detrimental to health,[7] lead in plumbing solder was replaced by silver (food-grade applications) or antimony, with copper often added, and the proportion of tin was increased (see Lead-free solder.)

The addition of tin—more expensive than lead—improves wetting properties of the alloy; lead itself has poor wetting characteristics. High-tin tin-lead alloys have limited use as the workability range can be provided by a cheaper high-lead alloy.[8]

In electronics, components on printed circuit boards (PCBs) are connected to the printed circuit, and hence to other components, by soldered joints. For miniaturized PCB joints with surface mount components, solder paste has largely replaced solid solder.

Matt thanks for tip with the gun
I never thought of doing it that way
I always torch big lugs and have too be fire careful

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Did you geniuses manage to click the link and check the PRICE? 500 grams of 60/40 not 50/50 or 40/60. I guess nine of you have torch soldered a large lug. The lug has to be fed solder at 12 inches a second unless it's big stuff and this is like .090" But maybe a few comments are issued by folks who do not solder 4 gauge to 4/0 regularly. Oooooo wait - maybe I could try cramming a one pound solder bar down into the lug. It's not easy to find low priced SIXTY PERCENT solder any more. Eighty dollar rolls of lead free solder are predominating. Works great once you get the fire extinguished in the insulation.

Link? What link? Oooooo wait- maybe someone didn't post a link. :)

3oaks wrote:
Where have you been? Flux free solder is nothing new. Been on the market almost for ever. Long before flux core solder was even heard of. :@

Most every Hardware store I've been in has it Has for years.. YOu can get Rosin Core, Acid or No Flux

And you can buy flux, both Rosin and acid, with no solder too.

I've never had that problem.

When I go to solder a big lug, I take the solder tip out of the nuts of the soldering gun (D550) and cram them against the lug until the solder melts in. When the rosin runs out I just clean it off later.

No fires.

Matt

Did you geniuses manage to click the link and check the PRICE? 500 grams of 60/40 not 50/50 or 40/60. I guess nine of you have torch soldered a large lug. The lug has to be fed solder at 12 inches a second unless it's big stuff and this is like .090" But maybe a few comments are issued by folks who do not solder 4 gauge to 4/0 regularly. Oooooo wait - maybe I could try cramming a one pound solder bar down into the lug. It's not easy to find low priced SIXTY PERCENT solder any more. Eighty dollar rolls of lead free solder are predominating. Works great once you get the fire extinguished in the insulation.

Be nice guys.

"Where have you been?"

Mexico?